August and September went by in a bit of a blur.

And now we are nearly into October - in fact by the time this post gets published it will be October.

How did that happen?

If you saw my last post you will have seen that my mother was poorly. It was her last illness and sadly we lost her at the beginning of September.

August seemed to disappear in a blur of motorway journeys up and down to Kent, where she lived, and then September just seemed to be one long week (I have no ideas what happened to the weekends.) One highlight in August was Hampshire Open Studios. I will report on that in my next post.

But here we are - summer is slipping into its autumn clothes.

There have been no garden visits this year (and indeed my own little patch has been a bit neglected after the joy of the tulips in the spring). But as late summer slips away it is having a last hurrah.



Most joyful (because they cost nothing) are the nasturtiums - a very cheap packet of seeds picked up somewhere random. They looked very unpromising early on but now are seem to be gaily romping all over the garden with gay abandon. And they bring a cheer to the heart. Pops of vibrant orange - some tinged with red, others almost yellow.







And the other little things to make me smile is the fuchsia (I thought it had not made it through winter) and a little creeping geranium bought last year at Coton Manor.




And I have managed to plant up a couple of containers of pansies - these cheerful little plants will see me through to the spring.



I will be back soon with a report on the Hampshire Open Studios - a wonderful event I shared with my lovely friends Rob and Andy.

The best way to keep a blog is to plan regular posts so that you, dear reader, are kept engaged with all the goings on. That's the theory anyway, and certainly its what all the blogging experts say.